Title: Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
Author: Nir Eyal
First published August 6, 2019
300 pages, Hardcover
ISBN: 9781948836531 (ISBN10: 194883653X)
Rating: 3.75
Overview
You’ve seen him around town. He’s the guy at the coffee shop, staring at his phone.
He’s the one on the park bench, talking to himself. Who is he?
He’s a person. In Person, the debut novel by Sam Pink, we follow this person as he wanders through the streets of Chicago, contemplating the meaning of life and the possibility of purposeful starvation.
He has sex with his neighbor and buys little plastic dogs from homeless people instead of looking for a job. The person is all of us, lost and searching for something more.
He shoots an empty pellet gun at his face and reads his roommate’s yearbook in the bathtub. He dreams of a world where everyone is friends, but invents new ways to not get along.
Reading Person will make you question everything you know about yourself and the world around you. Are you ready to become…
a person?
Editoral Review
In today’s increasingly distracted world, where the constant onslaught of notifications and interruptions threatens to derail our productivity and well-being, Nir Eyal’s Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life provides a timely and invaluable guide to reclaiming our focus and agency. Eyal, a renowned behavioral designer and author of the best-selling Hooked, draws on years of research and personal experience to offer a practical and approachable framework for mastering our internal and external distractions.
Whether addressing the perils of social media addiction or the challenges of procrastination and self-sabotage, Eyal combines personal anecdotes with scientific insights to help readers adopt new habits and strategies for staying on task and fulfilling their goals. He outlines four key steps that he promises will help anyone become “indistractable”: understanding the deeper motivations behind our distractions, mastering the art of timeboxing, hacking back external triggers, and preventing interruptions with “pre-suasion” techniques.
But where Eyal truly excels is in providing a counterintuitive and compassionate perspective on the nature of distraction itself. Instead of demonizing technology or ourselves, he encourages readers to develop a more nuanced and empathetic understanding of why we get distracted and how we can channel that energy towards more meaningful pursuits.
He also deftly illustrates how mindfulness practices and self-compassion can help us reduce stress and boost our resilience in the face of setbacks. Overall, Indistractable is a refreshing and empowering book that offers a much-needed antidote to the chaos and stress of modern life.
While some may find Eyal’s advice overly prescriptive or simplistic at times, his engaging style and practical tips make it a compelling read for anyone seeking to reclaim their focus and purpose. Highly recommended for anyone looking to break free from the tyranny of distraction and reclaim their time and attention.
Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars. While Eyal’s advice is not revolutionary, his unique perspective and practical suggestions make Indistractable one of the most useful and inspiring books on the subject.
Highly recommended for anyone looking to master their own attention and live more fulfilling lives.
